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"Munthiri Pickle" sounds familiar?
No ???
How about "Appachan's Munthiri Pickle" ?
Aahhhh….now I see a large chunk of Keralites staying abroad nodding their heads with a playful smile :)
For those who are wondering if I have gone nuts, here is the background; this is from a popular Malayalam sitcom, Akkarakazchakal that is catching up like wildfire among the Malayalees staying abroad as well as the YouTube fans. Presented in a truly realistic backdrop, with an undertone of sarcasm paired beautifully with plain humour, it revolves around the life of a middle class Malayalee family, settled in US of A and people associated with them. A particular episode paints how Appachan, a typical "Naattinpurathukaaran", an old man from a rural town in Kerala, visiting his son and family, tries to spend his spare time by digging up their backyard and creating a small vegetable patch along with some grapevines. Our beloved Appachan has been dreaming of making wine with these grapes but when it starts falling off, the old man resorts to making some pickles with it. As it turns out, the pickled grapes becomes a major hit among their friends and eventually they start selling the pickled grapes, under the brand name, "Appachan's Munthiri Pickle" in line with the famous brand, "Grandma's Pickle" !!
Well, when they repeated this humble culinary invention from Appachan, in a couple of episodes, it slowly started tickling my ever-active 24/7 craving department. I seriously pondered over the idea of someone from the production crew, "Infamous Coconut Production" sharing the recipe for Appachan's Munthiri Pickle!!!! Yeah…I know….I am that desperate and stupid at times!
Lazy me, didn't even bother to experiment pickling a batch of grapes and life moved on…… few weeks later, while searching for some xyz thing, I stumbled upon Sarah's blog with a recipe for raisin pickle! Though it was not a one with fresh grapes, somehow the recipe sounded charming and interesting, especially with my weakness for sweet-savoury dishes. And then I threw the idea at CJJ who is generally not fond of any sweet-savoury combo but surprisingly he showed interest saying that it might taste like his favourite date pickle. As I got the green signal, I made a batch of that raisin pickle and voila, we were floored!!! It IS addictive. If you are feeling blue that festival of lights and crackers is over, you should try this condiment which is literally a burst of contrasting flavours that complement well with each other. Imagine the sweet raisins soaked and drenched in the sharpness of vinegar , spiced up with hot chilly powder and flavored with pungent ginger and garlic, dancing on your palate……give it a try, it goes well with spicy curried meat or vegetable and Biryani , in particular.
I followed Sarah's recipe and methods closely except in the proportion of ginger, garlic and green chillies. I took a tablespoon each of these three ingredients for a tightly packed cup of sun-dried raisins. The only thing I would do differently next time is to reduce the amount of vinegar a little bit or use a less stronger one.
Thank you, Sarah for sharing this wonderful recipe …we enjoy it thoroughly :)


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*The shipment contains 10 boxes that vary in size. All items are install-ready.
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SlingStudio is the most affordable live production system available today. No further discounts or coupon codes may be used towards a SlingStudio purchase.
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Cellular modems and LRT Cloud Server Service sold separately.
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SlingStudio Hub
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SlingStudio Battery
Use SlingStudio almost anywhere without a power cord for up to 3 hours.
SlingStudio USB-C Expander
The USB-C Expander supports wired Ethernet connectivity for livestreaming and connects to USB 3.0 hard drives and SSD drives* for alternative recording media.
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Store all of your SlingStudio gear and more. The SlingStudio Backpack has padded compartments to fit all of your SlingStudio devices and associated equipment, including your laptop and multiple SlingStudio Batteries and CameraLinks.
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subset: commoncrawl


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By Ellen Finkelstein
I get lots of requests for information on how to post a presentation as a video to YouTube. Here are four good options:
1) Use PowerPoint 2010. It outputs to WMV format. Use the commands Choose File> Save and Send> Create a Video. Then choose from a couple of options, as you see here. You can use existing timings for each slide or assign a timing. This is the absolute easiest method.
The video output will include sounds and narration, and even embedded videos!
2) Use Techsmith Camtasia Studio. For longer presentations, and when you want editing capabilities, Camtasia is a great tool with lots of features. I use it a lot. Camtasia is video-recording software, so you run through your presentation and Camtasia creates a video. You can record your voice as you go.
For presentations under 5 minutes, Techsmith's Jing is easy to use. Jing Pro (an easy-to-afford $14.95 per year) lets you quickly share to YouTube. Jing is also a video-capture program and you can record your narration as you go.
3) CamStudio is free, open-source video-recording software. I've only tested it once. It doesn't let you edit your video.
4) Authorstream, a presentation-sharing site, lets you convert up to 5 minutes to video and upload it to YouTube. They have paid versions that will let you convert more time.
To get the best results, you'll need to know about slide timing and perhaps narration. On my website, go to Create a video effect for information on slide timing and to Secrets for successfully narrating a presentation for information on narrating.
When you have your video output, you just upload it to YouTube the same way you would upload any other video.
About the Author:
Ellen Finkelstein is the author of How to Do Everything with PowerPoint 2007 (and 2003), 101 Tips Every PowerPoint User Should Know, 101 Advanced Techniques Every PowerPoint User Should Know and PowerPoint for Teachers: Dynamic Presentations and Interactive Classroom Projects. Her web site, www.ellenfinkelstein.com, offers the free PowerPoint Tips Newsletter, a PowerPoint Tips Blog and many ideas that help PowerPoint users create more effective presentations.


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4th of July cookie-cake
I've never made one of those flag cakes for the 4th. For some reason, I've always strayed from the most obvious holiday fare. Well, pictorial fare, at least. I'm pretty predictable, otherwise. This year, since the kids are old enough to recognize our country's flag, I thought it was time we finally make one. We tried the cookie version.
If you're familiar with fruit pizza, you'll know exactly how to do this. If not, here is the recipe for the pizza and flag.
Fruit Pizza
1 roll refrigerated sugar cookie dough
(or 1 lb. homemade sugar cookie dough)
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/3 c powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 pint strawberries, sliced
2 kiwi, sliced
2 bananas, sliced
1/2 c blueberries
or any desired mix of fruit
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Roll cookie out to fit pizza pan (about 12").
Bake cookie dough approximately 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow crust to cool.
Blend cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla together until smooth. Spread on top of cookie crust.
Arrange sliced fruit on top of filling.
Slice and serve.
Refrigerate leftovers.
Alternate filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 jar marshmallow creme (about 7 oz.)
Beat until smooth.
Great as a fruit dip; one of my favorites.
American Flag Cookie
same cookie crust
same filling (I used the fruit dip filling)
1 1/2 pints blueberries
2-6 oz. boxes of raspberries
2 bananas, sliced
1/2 lb. strawberries, sliced
some cherries, pitted and halved
some mini marshmallows
(Keep in mind, much of the fruit was consumed during assembly. If you're not planning on eating it, you could prepare a smaller amount).
Roll crust out into rectangle approx. 10x14 (I did not measure mine, but it was bigger than a casserole) on top of parchment. Lift parchment and place parchment and rolled dough in a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan.
Bake and cool as above.
Blend filling and spread over cookie.
Arrange blueberries in top left corner, optional marshmallows as stars. Arrange red fruits into stripes alternating with banana and marshmallow (white) stripes. We were short a couple stripes, but who's counting?
This is super simple and fun for kids to make and eat. I like it pretty well, myself.


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This article is more than 1 year old
Ubisoft insists DRM 'a success'
Sales against pirates
Ubisoft has responded to backlash over the company's determination to use an Internet-at-all-times DRM policy, insisting it is a success and does protect its products from piracy.
A Ubisoft rep, who spoke to PC Gamer, said the developer has seen "a clear reduction in piracy of our titles which required a persistent on-line connection, and from that point of view the requirement is a success."
Yesterday, news broke that Ubisoft would return to the harsh DRM restrictions with Driver: San Francisco, released this September. It has also been widely reported that the PC version of From Dust would also feature the DRM when it sees release at the end of August. This has recently been denied by Ubisoft, though.
No pirates here
Many of you took to the comment forums yesterday to express the view that the strict DRM measures have an adverse effect. Opinions suggested that gamers, unhappy about the always on-line prerequisite, will be drawn to alternatives. In some instances, that will be different publishers and others the temptation is to assume a pirated version will appear without the always-on protection.
Either way, the suggestion was that sales would be damaged in the process. Ubisoft clearly believes its measures to limit piracy are worth the risk. Even so, the problem remains that legitimate players who have paid for these DRM titles, will still suffer if their Internet connection is lost, which isn't the most enticing prospect for a potential buyer. ®


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The drastic rise in the number of foreclosed houses across the city has resulted in homes that are left empty as families are forced to move out. These homes are frequently retaken by banks and large financial and real estate institutions that have little to no connection with the municipality in which they own property making enforcement of the building and sanitary codes very difficult. Furthermore, the homes sit empty for months or years at a time awaiting foreclosure sale; often creating an unattractive public nuisance.
Some homes are in violation of multiple aspects of state and local building codes. These code violations include, among other violations, unoccupied buildings susceptible to vandalism and/or open structures rendering them unsafe and dangerous, unlocked houses, unshoveled snow that renders sidewalks impassable, yards full of litter and trash, overgrown grass and bushes and unsecured swimming pools that are not only a threat to children but become harborages and breeding grounds for rodents and infectious insects.
In an effort to increase mortgage lender accountability and because of the number of foreclosures and the difficulty of tracking down the owner or person responsible for the condition of the property, the City of Boston has passed an ordinance addressing these issues. The ordinance requires all residential property owners, including lenders, trustees and service companies register and properly maintain vacant and/or foreclosing properties. Properties must be maintained in accordance with the relevant sanitary codes, building codes and local regulations concerning external and/or visible maintenance.
* As a best practice, the City of Boston will only ask for the information needed to perform the City service you need. Please note that any information given to the City of Boston is subject disclosure under Massachusetts Public Record Laws. Please see our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.


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WOW, we are halfway through 2012, and there are only 209 days left 'til Christmas!! This week, we challenge you to make a Christmas card using Birds...it matters not what kind of bird, as long as it is a Christmas card with a bird or birds on it!
Here are the Design Team Creations to inspire you:
Thank you for stopping by today! We hope you will join us this week, and show us your creativity!


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A new study by Valerie Hu, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry and molecular medicine at the George Washington University (GW) School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS), reports that RORA, a novel candidate gene for autism discovered by her group in a 2010 study, regulates a large number of other genes associated with autism.
"We are focusing on this gene, in part, because this gene can act as a master regulator of other genes," said Hu, whose study was published in the journal Molecular Autism. "Called nuclear hormone receptors, they are capable of activating or suppressing other genes in the genome. The question was which specific genes are regulated by RORA."
Hu and co-author, Tewarit Sarachana, Ph.D., a former doctoral student in the molecular medicine doctoral program at SMHS, found that RORA encodes a protein that can regulate the expression of more than 2,500 other genes. Of these 2,500 genes, many are known to be involved in neuronal development and functions, and 426 of RORA's gene targets are already listed in AutismKB, a database of known autism candidate genes.
To identify genes regulated by RORA, Hu and Sarachana used chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) with an anti-RORA antibody followed by whole-genome promoter array (chip) analysis. This genome-wide ChIP-on-chip analysis of target genes of RORA, as well as additional methods of validation, confirmed that RORA transcriptionally regulates the genes A2BP1, CYP19A1, HSD17B10, ITPR1, NLGN1, and NTRK2, such that when RORA levels are cut in half, all six genes also go down in their expression. The expression levels of these six genes are also reduced in RORA-deficient postmortem brain tissues from individuals with autism relative to that of age-matched unaffected controls.
"We see it as a domino effect, where RORA is a particularly shaky domino," said Hu. "If knocked over, it can also knock down a whole bunch of other genes, except that it's not just a single chain of events. There are multiple chains of events, leading to massive disruption of gene expression in autism."
A 2011 study by Hu's group revealed that RORA has the potential to be under negative and positive regulation by androgen and estrogen, respectively, suggesting that RORA may also contribute to the male bias of autism spectrum disorder.
Story Source:
Materials provided by George Washington University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
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Broomstick Lace Baby Afghan Crochet Pattern
Design By: Maggie Weldon
Skill Level: Easy
Size: 33" wide by 34" long
Materials: Bernat Baby Coordinates - sport weight yarn - 12 ounces (1020 yards) each Pink, Blue or Green (MC) and White (CC), Knitting Needle, size 50 (Broomstick) and Yarn Needle.
Crochet Hook: Size J, or size for gauge.
Broomstick Lace Baby Afghan Crochet Pattern
Baby afghans are a soft and cuddly blanket to wrap around your new bundle. The Broomstick Lace Baby Afghan Crochet Pattern is a crochet stitch that creates just the right design and texture for use with a baby. There are no limits when it comes to the color you choose, so it is perfect for either a boy or girl. This gorgeous baby afghan is sure to be a favorite and a go-to pattern that will get plenty of use. The soft feel and delicate design are perfect for draping over a rocking chair in baby's room, or laying on the floor for tummy time. Crochet the afghan using all white to make a delicate afghan for the christening or other special occasion. The options with this baby afghan are open to let you experiment with colors.
Broomstick Lace Baby Afghan Crochet Pattern is an easy crochet afghan. Beginners will have great success making this as their first afghan. Advanced crocheters will love the ease and finished look. All these benefits make the pattern a perfect choice. Choose any color or combination of colors that work well for the room decoration. Sport weight yarn lets the broomstick lace pop out for a delicate look and soft feel. A yarn with a strand of shimmering nylon running through gives the afghan some sparkle and really makes the lace stand out. The finished baby afghan size is about 33 inches wide and 34 inches long. Make adjustments to the pattern if you prefer a larger finished afghan.


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Every successful product starts out the same way—with an inspiration; that "gotcha" moment when the proverbial light bulb goes off and the big idea you were looking for appears before you. Inspiration is the key, but it's just the beginning.
The hard work and heavy lifting that you put into researching the validity of your inspiration, the effort you put into creating and sustaining a market for it is what makes the difference between the good idea that tanks and the good idea that turns into a successful business. And that's where things get tricky. How do you take your new product and transform it into a successful brand with a growing and diversified number of SKUs? How do you expand a product line? How do you decide what the best new direction will be? Do you keep tweaking your own original idea or do take a different direction that complements but doesn't mirror your original line?
My own method is to ask myself: "What am I personally missing? What would I like for myself? What about this existing problem isn't solving all of my problems?"
In the last 10 years, my company, Spongeables, has launched two successful brands, and we are in the process of introducing a number of others. We've come up with a template that works. Of course there are no guarantees. You have to have the right product at the right time. You have to devote time and effort, unstintingly, to selling the product, to publicizing it, to creating a market that did not previously exist. A little luck along the way doesn't hurt, either.
Spongeables introduced the first shower gel infused body buffers. The product came about because I was tired of my toddler getting into the shower and spilling my expensive cleansing gels and skin lotions. My husband and I developed the concept of an all-in-one product with everything you needed already infused inside the buffer. We devised formulas that included skin care ingredients and hand-blended fragrances, found the perfect vehicle for the infused formulas in a buffer that changed texture as it absorbed water, and sought patent protection for our new idea.
Getting the Word Out
Since we were bringing out a completely new product, our next step was to introduce retailers and consumers to something they had not seen or used before.
Getting the word out means getting the press on your side. I met with the top editors at every important magazine, and put product directly into their hands. We set up an information system, providing them with photos, product, give-aways, story ideas and press releases, making it as easy as possible for them to give us the coverage we needed. We created a celebrity following by working with publicists to put our body buffers directly into the hands of Jennifer Lopez, Kate Hudson, Halle Berry, Helen Mirren and most of the biggest names in Hollywood. We used product placement services to put our body buffers into gift bags and top Hollywood events. And we actively sought coverage on the Internet, reaching out to bloggers and reviewers with information and samples.
Producers of every major show were on our hit list, as were producers at every television station in the country. When we signed up a new spa or salon to sell our product, we provided them with local press contact information and press material. You don't need to spend a fortune in advertising if you are willing to work hard for editorial coverage. It takes longer, but the effort pays for itself many, many times over.
Our marketing focus was on beauty salons and spas, so we contacted trade publications serving that market and provided them with story ideas, new product material, whatever they needed to give us the coverage we required.
It took two years, but we managed to create a niche for ourselves. We started winning awards, and when we did, we made sure every spa and salon in the country knew about it. We sent them monthly newsletters with special offers. It's not enough to have a great product, you have to give your retailers a good reason to give you some of their very limited space, and their clients and customers a good reason to pick your product.
Time to Grow
When it became obvious that the line needed to grow, we split the line into two separate brands, changing our formulas sufficiently to have two distinct products: one for mass market and one for the prestige end of the business. At this point, we also wanted to introduce additional SKUs and went to work developing foot buffers both lines.
This followed our plan of introducing unique products that could have their own niche within the body and bath line. The infused buffer concept was perfectly translatable to foot care, and allowed us expansion room to create additional products with different formulas for different needs
Distribution of our Spongelle Pedi-Buffers is now worldwide, and it is about to become our hero product. We've taken the infused buffer concept into many new dimensions that seem like natural outgrowths: we make products for men, we've added an anti-cellulite line and a children's line. We also private label for everything from film studios to designer fragrances, but to keep the momentum going, you need to keep expanding your best product.
Once you have your niche established, you need to keep your customers happy. Customer service is essential. I make sure I am in contact with my key salons and spas on a regular basis. If a product is selling well, I want to know. And if it isn't, I want to know even more. You can establish a good idea of what works regionally, nationally and internationally, just by doing a random sampling of your retailers in those areas. Keeping them in the loop, making them part of your team, builds a relationship that keeps your product strong. Creating a system where your customers feel comfortable contacting you, where they know you will respond quickly and positively to their feedback goes a long way toward increased sales.
There are no shortcuts and there are no foolproof tricks when it comes to turning an inspiration into a successful SKU, and turning a single SKU into a successful product line.
Follow your instincts, but do your homework. Examine the marketplace; check out competing products, internationally as well as domestically. If it's big in France and Japan, it's on its way here, and you don't want to debut your version a week after some giant corporation has introduced theirs. Due diligence is the best kind of inspiration when it comes to new product development. After that, all you need is willpower, determination and a healthy infusion of blood, sweat and tears.
Elaine Binder was born in the Soviet Union and immigrated to the U.S. in 1978. With a degree in performing arts and armed only with entrepreneurial spirit, she launched two successful brands, Spongeables and Spongelle, by creating a new niche in the personal care category aisle. Elaine is now focusing on Spongelle, Beyond Cleansing skin care infused body buffers targeted toward the most exclusive spas, hotels and resorts as well as pristine retail outlets. Elaine is a sought-after consultant to other companies and specializes in new product rollouts both in the U.S. and internationally, particularly in China and Hong Kong, U.K., Russia, South Korea, Europe, Australia and the Middle East.


text: The luxury accommodations of Winvian Farm are worlds unto themselves, nestled into the surrounding Connecticut woodlands and meadows. Eighteen unique resort cottages and the Hadley Suite were designed by fifteen different architects, each with a story to tell, each a surprise, an escape, a splendid adventure. Winvian Farm is near New York and Boston as well; easy to get to yet hard to leave.


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While Microsoft already offers a nice Hotmail app for Android, it wasn't optimized for the Kindle Fire (and, as I've discovered, doesn't work on Android 3.x tablets or the Android 4-based Samsung Galaxy Nexus). This week, however, the software giant took the next step in its ongoing effort of making its Hotmail service more accessible on mobile platforms, starting with a version specifically designed for the Fire.
Previously, Microsoft worked with Apple to integrate Hotmail into the iOS accounts functionality. And its Hotmail Android app shipped in December.
"The result has been over 12 million active Hotmail users on iOS and over 3 million active users of our Android application," Microsoft's David Law noted in a post to the Inside Windows Live blog. "In addition to making Hotmail work great on devices running Windows, we'll continue to invest in great experiences on other major device platforms."
Next up, the Kindle Fire. This inexpensive yet powerful tablet computer is based on a highly customized version of Android, as you probably know. (Read my Kindle Fire review for more information.) And Microsoft's free new Hotmail app for Kindle Fire is now available on Amazon's AppStore for Android.
"The Hotmail Kindle app gives you several advantages over the native Kindle Fire mail application," Law wrote. "Whereas the native Kindle application simply downloads your mail via POP3, with the new Hotmail app you can sync all your mail, contacts, folders, and subfolders via the more robust Exchange Active Sync protocol. Because the Kindle Fire uses a different implementation of Android, we needed to make some updates to our previous Hotmail app for Android to ensure it worked well. Now that we've finished the work and the app is ready, we're excited to give customers a great Hotmail experience on the Kindle Fire. Take a look and let us know what you think."
I installed the Hotmail app for Kindle Fire this morning to check it out. Frankly, it's not great. In landscape mode, there's no attempt to take advantage of the extra space by providing, say, a message preview/reading pane next to the message list, as is the case with the iOS Mail app. Instead, you get the same list of messages as you do in portrait view. That said, the inclusion of contacts and calendar sync is appreciated (while the exclusion of tasks, or what Hotmail calls "to-do's" is noted), though I should point out that they don't appear to be accessible from within the app itself, which appears to be only about email.
Frankly, one of the things I really like about mobile platforms is their ability to aggregate multiple accounts into seamless, integrated experiences. For example, I access all of my personal and work email accounts through a single Linked Inbox in Windows Phone (as described in Windows Phone 7.5: Linked Inbox for Email Consolidation). And I do the same thing in iOS devices (iPhone 4S, iPad 2, iPod touch) using that system's built-in apps for mail, contacts, and calendar.
The problem on Android, of course, is that the built-in mail app, which is annoyingly separate from the Gmail app, is lousy. And that's why a Hotmail app exists in the first place. I'd rather see the Android mail app updated to a single experience that works well for Gmail as well as all other email account types. This will do in the meantime, I guess. But it's not ideal.
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The LispWorks editor is fully integrated into the LispWorks programming environment. If you don't currently have an Editor (check the Windows menu), start one by choosing Tools > Editor .
To produce a menu bar on each tool in LispWorks for Windows, choose Tools > Global Preferences... and adjust the configuration.
There are a number of editor operations which are only available in Listener windows (for example, operations using the command history). These operations are covered in the Common LispWorks User Guide .


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Concussion settlement highlights difficulty of proving brain damage
Thursday's $765-million settlement between the National Football League and 4,500 retired NFL players underscores two key facts about traumatic brain injury: that it is difficult to prove and measure -- especially many years after the fact -- and that its link to neurocognitive problems that appear years later remains an enigma.
A mediated agreement does not mean that the retired NFL players' injuries were caused by football, or even that they could have proven as much, said former U.S. District Judge Layn Phillips, the court-appointed mediator who brokered the proposed settlement. Nor, Phillips added, does it mean they could not prove it.
What's clear is that proof either way will take years of further research -- and litigation. While evidence of a link between concussion and long-term cognitive and psychiatric consequences is mounting, it may take many more studies to clarify the relationship. And hard proof of cause-and-effect may remain elusive.
Concussion is indisputably as much a consequence of football at the professional level as wrecked knees, blown-out shoulders and bad backs. But even in the immediate wake of a ferocious blow to the head, traumatic brain injury can be difficult to show unless there is evidence of bleeding in or swelling of the brain.
CT scans can't detect the brain's massive metabolic disturbance in the wake of trauma. Nor can they measure the shearing of fat-covered axons -- the "white matter" that carries electrical impulses across the hemispheres of the brain and from region to region. And yet research suggests both of those processes may be key to concussion's most damaging cognitive consequences.
Nor is damage evident on a CT scan conclusive. Even when such imaging does suggest brain injury, many will not immediately suffer the headaches, fatigue and loss of memory and concentration that signal the brain has been hurt. Others who may have come up "clean" on a CT scan may complain of subtle symptoms for weeks or months after a blow to the head.
So the diagnosis of concussion can be hard to make even when a player is rushed from the field to a hospital -- a rare response in a sport where players have been urged to "walk it off" and get back in the game. When depression, dementia, concentration difficulties and tremors appear years -- decades even -- after a player has retired, their link to blows to the head sustained while playing professionally is extremely difficult to prove.
One problem is that research suggests a person's response to brain injury may be influenced by a host of factors -- social, genetic, perhaps even nutritional -- for which the National Football League is not responsible. The U.S. military, for which brain trauma has become an urgent priority, has sponsored many studies to identify the genes or life circumstances that might make a person more vulnerable to long-term effects of traumatic brain injury.
In the future, that knowledge may help weed out military recruits, or help steer NFL wannabes to non-contact sports instead. But retired NFL players may be left with the hard fact that, vulnerable or not, they played.
Another problem is the plaintiffs' lack of baseline measures of cognitive performance. Those would allow a basis for comparison that might at least have correlated with a decline in cognitive health or psychiatric symptoms with blows to the head.
The settlement itself will set aside funds for "baseline exams" for all retired NFL players. But those come long after the blows to the head have stopped. They may provide early warning of -- and treatment for -- trouble ahead. But they'll do little to establish a link between brain trauma sustained during play and later troubles.
Fortunately, baseline cognitive testing has increasingly become the norm for players as young as grade school, since it can help detect concussion-related changes and guide a physician's decision to clear a concussed young player to return to play. Over time, researchers are certain to use that data to track players' cognitive well-being as a function of playing time and blows to the head.
Finally, there's the grim possibility that the small hits matter as much as the big ones -- a hypothesis for which there is growing evidence. When researchers at Purdue University wired the helmets of a high school football team in Lafayette, Ind., with accelerometers recently, they found that some players with no sign of concussion -- players who took many, less forceful blows to the head during the season -- began showing cognitive deficits as the fall wore on.
Whether those effects accumulate or the brain heals completely between seasons, no one yet knows. But it does suggest that professional football players, who generally cut their teeth (and rock their brains) for years on high school and college gridirons, may not have only the NFL to blame for their late-life problems.
On all these uncertainties, research has begun to establish a link between traumatic brain injury and later cognitive and psychiatric problems.
At Boston University's Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, the autopsied brains of dozens of former athletes have shown clear evidence of degenerative disease not seen in healthy brains.
Epidemiological studies have found that dementia and depression are more frequently diagnosed in former elite athletes who played contact sports than in people without such a history.
And at Columbia University and elsewhere, researchers are increasingly using new imaging techniques, including functional MRI that watches the brain at work, to detect immediate and longer-term changes in the brain's performance following blows to the head.
Those have already yielded evidence that in the year after a concussion, scanned participants showed evidence of shrinkage in a region of the brain -- the anterior cingulate gyrus -- that's implicated in depression. That may draw a clearer line between brain trauma and a greater propensity to mood disorders and suicide suggested by studies that have compared broad populations.
"We're sort of at the beginning of learning about concussion and all of its long-term effects," said NYU Langone Medical Center radiologist Dr. Yvonne Lui, who has conducted such research. "Right now, there's a lot of data that shows that between groups, there are differences between control populations and athletes in contact sports. But what it means for any individual person is still questionable. So how you use that information to say anything about the long-term risk of any individual athlete is hard to put your finger on and accurately predict at this point."
Meanwhile, research gauging the effects of smaller or accumulated blows to the head has been recognized by the MacArthur Assn. Kevin Guskiewicz, who has conducted some of the strongest work linking concussion with later dementia and depression, was long a thorn in the NFL's side. But in 2010, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell asked Guskiewiz to chair the NFL's panel on safety equipment and playing rules, and Guskiewicz said yes.
[For the Record, 9:42 a.m. PDT Aug. 30: An earlier version of this online article incorrectly identified Dr. Yvonne Lui as a radiologist with Columbia University. She is with NYU Langone Medical Center.]


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The freeze that lingered over much of the nation Wednesday was expected to be followed by strong winds and more bitter cold through the Midwest and deep into the South.
The unusually persistent Southern cold snap has been blamed for at least six deaths and threatened to freeze Florida citrus crops.
The cold was expected to continue through the weekend. The National Weather Service predicted the heaviest snow from the fast-moving system would fall on Iowa, Missouri and Illinois, with 4-6 inches predicted along with some locally heavier amounts through Thursday.
In a rare turn for the South, forecasters warned that snow and ice were possible Thursday from South Carolina to Louisiana and wind chills in the region could get down to near zero at night.
"This air mass originated on the ice cap at the top of the world," said Bobby Boyd, a weather service forecaster in Nashville. He said the cold shot wouldn't be spent until it plunged southeastward and moved well beyond Cuba into the Caribbean.
Authorities said four people in Tennessee, one in Mississippi and one in South Carolina have died from the cold since the weekend. They included a man with Alzheimer's who wandered out into his yard in Nashville and froze to death, and a homeless man found dead in a tent in South Carolina.
The total doesn't include people who died in car accidents on icy roads and in fires started by stoves and space heaters.
The frigid weather hampered northern firefighters and even made life hard for Florida's tree dwelling iguanas.
In central and south Florida, farmers tried to salvage citrus and vegetable crops by spraying them in protective layers of ice and covering them in plastic.
It was so cold in Florida, freezing iguanas were seen falling out of trees. Experts say the cold-blooded reptiles become immobilized when the temperature falls into the 40s and they lose their grip on the tree.
In Indianapolis, frozen hydrants frustrated firefighters as they tried to put out a Tuesday night blaze at a commercial building.
Officials said the city of Des Moines is likely to exhaust the remainder of its $3 million annual snow removal budget with this week's storm, expected to dump up to as much as 10 inches of snow in some areas. That is on top of the more than 28 inches of snow that fell there in December.
Oklahoma's two largest school districts have canceled classes for the rest of the week because of subfreezing temperatures. Some of the schools in several other states, including Mississippi, Alabama and Missouri, were expected to close Thursday because of the weather.
In the Dakotas, Interstate 90 between Rapid City and Mitchell in South Dakota was closed Wednesday because of zero visibility that led to backed-up traffic and some crashes.
Joe Dietrich, who owns a snowblower repair shop in Bismarck, N.D., said bitter cold and snow have been so good for business, he had to turn away dozens of repairs this week.
"My building is only so big and I can only take so many," he said.
Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear has declared a state of emergency in Perry County, where water line breaks have left large swaths of the area without water.
Much of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina and Virginia was closed to motorists because of heavy accumulations of snow and ice as well as downed trees.
In Maine, a pilot died Monday after he reported ice buildup on the wings of his small plane and it crashed into a river channel. Searchers were also looking for an 18-year-old snowmobiler who disappeared on New Year's Day. And in Wisconsin a 7-year-old boy died when he fell through ice into a river while sledding with friends.
In coastal North Carolina, volunteers were scrambling to save endangered sea turtles that were stunned by the cold and stranded off the Outer Banks.
Southern supermarkets were doing a brisk business in staples like bread and milk.
Ann Warden of Brentwood, Tenn., loaded eight grocery bags into the trunk of her black luxury car Wednesday morning and worried about a snowy forecast.
"You know Nashville gets paralyzed with just one snowflake," she said. "I couldn't be caught without milk. And I got some nice wine at the liquor store."
A stunned iguana lies on the sidewalk after having fallen from a tree Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010 in Surfside, Fla. With temperatures in the 40's the non-native species becomes immobilized in the cold temperatures and fall from their perches. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
Workers remove a protective cover from a strawberry field Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010 in Dover, Fla. Farmers were forced to try and protect their crops against the cold, as temperatures in the area dipped into the mid-20's. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
© 2010 Associated Press. Displayed by permission. All rights reserved.


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C11.5. Pycnia with honeydew on barberry leaf.
C11.8. A "Rust Buster" medal given to schoolchildren who helped in the barberry eradication program.
C11.11. Cedar-apple rust on an apple leaf. Pycnia form on the upper side, and aeciospores are released from the lower side.
C11.12. Masses of aeciospores shower from an infected hawthorn tree. This quince rust pathogen is closely related to the cedar-apple rust fungus and shares junipers as alternate hosts. The aeciospores on the sidewalk have failed to infect a juniper.
C11.14. Asian rust of soybean caused by Phakopsora pachyrhizi on a leaf.
White pine blister rust
Flower rusts


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Post-election outlook for nuclear energy
In my September post at the ANS Nuclear Cafe, I discussed the Democratic and Republican party platforms, along with their potential impacts on nuclear energy. With the 2012 U.S. elections now behind us, this post provides a post-election follow up, and discusses the impacts of the election results on nuclear's prospects over the near- to mid-term.
With the reelection of Barrack Obama, and minor gains by Democrats in the House and Senate, the election results portend a continuation of the status quo, for the most part. Impacts of the election in various areas that may impact nuclear's prospects are discussed in the sections below.
Yucca Mountain
I've always taken great issue with the Obama administration's actions on Yucca mountain, and maintain that, at a minimum, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing process should be finished, even if a political decision is made to not pursue the project. It is clear to most observers that the NRC technical staff (which had completed its review) was about to conclude that the repository met all the technical requirements, before the process was terminated near the finish line, for political reasons. The public has a right to know that Yucca would have met all the requirements, and that yes indeed there is a viable, acceptable technical solution to the nuclear waste problem.
With the reelection of Obama and with (Democrat) Harry Reid remaining as Senate majority leader, the current status quo on Yucca Mountain will remain. Reid will continue to block funding for completion of NRC licensing, and the (Obama/Reid-appointed) NRC chair will likely cooperate with the effort to stop the process. As was the case before the election, whether the NRC will complete the licensing process will be primarily determined by the courts.
Yucca Mountain is one area where a Romney administration may have been more helpful to nuclear, but it's not clear whether there would have been any meaningful difference. Romney was also making anti-Yucca statements (such as "states should have the right to decide if they want the repository") during the campaign. Republicans winning the Senate would have made a far larger difference, as Reid would have lost the Majority Leader position, which is essential to his ability to block Yucca. On the other hand, if the president is not interested in changing the situation, even that may have not made much difference.
It seems that completion of the licensing process (the best we can hope for in the near term) is up to the courts at this point, and would have remained so regardless of who won the election. Also unclear is whether the lack of progress on the waste issue is having a significant effect on how much nuclear power there will be over the near-to-mid term. I've grown to believe that it is not as critical an issue as I formerly thought.
Fukushima-related upgrades and regulations
Whereas the anticipated regulations and required plant upgrades that will result from NRC's response to Fukushima will add costs for existing nuclear plants (and to a small extent, new plants), it is unlikely that the outcome of the election would have had any significant impacts on those regulations. No parties or candidates have made any significant statements on the NRC's actions in this area.
Nuclear plant loan guarantees
The Obama administration had supported increasing the nuclear loan guarantee volume by a factor of several (to over $100 billion) but could not get it through Congress. On the other hand, the Obama administration has been dragging its feet in actually approving any loan guarantees, even for the Vogtle and Summer plants. With the current budget situation, any increase in loan volume is unlikely.
It is unlikely, however, that Romney or the Republicans would have been better in the area of nuclear loan guarantees. Although the Republicans are ostensibly pro-nuclear, many in the Republican party are opposed to loan guarantees for any energy projects.
Finally, the overall impact of the nuclear loan guarantees is no longer clear. Indications are that other factors such as lack of power demand and low natural gas prices, as opposed to the lack of loan guarantees, are the primary reason that no plants other than Vogtle and Summer (and Watts Bar) are going forward. As for the Vogtle and Summer projects themselves, they appear to be going forward even without the government loan guarantees.
Climate change policies
Although the Obama administration is not planning to propose a cap-and-trade system or a carbon tax in the near future, Obama has stated that the nation needs to have a "conversation" about climate change, implying a desire to develop some type of policy.
It seems clear that the chances of some type of policy or progress on climate change are far greater under Obama and the Democrats then they would have been under Romney and the Republicans, who had explicitly promised to block all such efforts. For example, the chances of the Clean Energy Standard policy (being debated and developed in Congress) moving forward would definitely be greater under the Democrats. Any type of climate change policy that creates a disincentive to emit CO2 would be tremendously beneficial to nuclear, particularly over the longer term.
Although climate change had fallen off the agenda in recent years, and in the last election, there are reasons to believe that it will (again) rise in importance. Increasing numbers of Americans believe that climate change is a serious issue. As the economy improves, issues like the environment are expected to become more important in voters' minds. Also of note is the fact that even some conservative organizations are starting to consider a CO2 tax as a better approach than cap-and-trade, as well as a potential source of government revenue in lieu of increased income tax rates (as one example).
Election impacts on coal
It is clear that the reelection of Obama has hurt coal's future prospects. The coal companies themselves, as well as the stock market, confirm this. Coal company stocks fell substantially after the election, and some coal companies have laid off workers.
Under Obama, the Environmental Protection Agency is in the process of significantly tightening up air pollution requirements, which would significantly impact the oldest (and dirtiest) coal facilities. To stay in operation, such plants would have to spend large amounts of money on air pollution controls. Given the current low cost of natural gas, these requirements will render those facilities uneconomic, and many are expected to close. With Obama's reelection, the EPA is also expected to proceed with a rule that requires all new power plants to emit no more CO2 than a typical gas-fired plant; a requirement that essentially precludes the permitting of any new coal plants.
In contrast, Romney (and the Republicans) campaigned on the promise to stop any tightening of air pollution limits, and perhaps even rolling requirements back. Their message was that they would act not only to keep existing coal plants open (including the oldest ones), but to increase the use of coal in the future. They emphatically opposed any efforts to reduce power-sector CO2 emissions.
With respect to any impact on nuclear's future prospects, policies that result in the closure of old coal plants would help, the only question being how much. Any retired coal-fired generation will be replaced by gas-fired generation (as opposed to nuclear), at least over the short to mid-term. Over the longer term, however, the resulting increase in gas demand will result in higher natural gas prices, which in turn would make nuclear more competitive.
Regardless of any impact they may eventually have on nuclear, these air pollution and global warming policies are the right thing to do, in my personal opinion. Nuclear professionals and advocates need to ask themselves why, specifically, they support nuclear, i.e., why it's important. Given our abundant reserves of coal (let alone gas), coupled with coal generation's low cost, the economic and energy security arguments for nuclear may appear relatively weak-if they come from someone who doesn't care so much about the environment, and therefore would have no problem with expanded fossil fuel use. The most compelling argument for nuclear (for me, anyway) has always been its environmental benefits. By extension, if one cares about air pollution and global warming, these policies are something to be celebrated, whether or not it is nuclear that replaces the old, dirty coal plants.
Wind tax credit
The reelection of Obama, and the Democrats' small gains in Congress, make it somewhat more likely that the (~2 cent/kW-hr) wind energy production tax credit will be extended, for at least some period of time. Romney had stated that he would seek to end the tax credit, whereas Obama supports it. Even now, however, it is not clear that it will be extended, given the great need to cut government spending. This is true despite the fact that many Republican lawmakers, from farm states mainly, support the tax credit.
The wind power tax credit has some degree of negative economic impact on both new nuclear plant projects and existing plants. Wind often produces surges of power at times of very low power demand, which can actually lead to a negative market price for power over some time periods. The tax credit makes it still profitable to run the windfarms even under such conditions. These situations have a significant negative economic impact on existing nuclear generators in the region, which cannot shut down over short time periods. These problems are particularly acute in Illinois, where wind is being introduced and there is a large amount of nuclear generation (without much fossil generation that can be cut back in times of low wind demand). As a result, Exelon (the regional utility) has changed its position and is now opposing the extension of the wind power tax credit.
One final potential impact of the wind tax credit is that since it will result in more wind power, gas demand will be somewhat lower in the future, which may result in lower natural gas prices that would in turn make nuclear somewhat less competitive.
A legitimate issue that nuclear supporters should have with the wind tax credit is the question of fairness, i.e., why one non-polluting form of energy should benefit from large subsidies and (often) outright government mandates, whereas another, nuclear, does not. Yes, new nuclear plants also get a tax credit, but unlike with wind, the credit is limited to just the first few plants. Another issue is whether wind is being sufficiently penalized for its intermittent nature (producing power when it is least needed). Perhaps having the tax credit not apply during periods of very low demand, or some type of mechanism to support the electricity price during such glut periods, should be in order.
Natural gas
I have saved the best for last. Most experts agree that the single most important factor that affects nuclear's future prospects is the price of natural gas. If gas remains at current (very low) prices over the long term, not only will few, if any, new nuclear plants be built (beyond Vogtle and Summer), but even the continued operation of existing plants may be threatened.
A perfect example of this is the recently announced closure of the Kewaunee nuclear plant. The plant lies within a "merchant" market, where the price of electricity is determined by the "last" supplier (highest variable cost), which is usually a gas plant. With the low price of natural gas, market prices for power in the region are very low. At current prices, Kewaunee is losing money. (This came as a shock to me, as the whole idea with nuclear is that whereas the initial capital cost is high, the operating cost, once built, is extremely low, low enough to easily compete with anything-or so I thought.)
If anything, the reelection of Obama and the Democrats somewhat increases the chances that the price of natural gas will increase in the future. They are considering tightening regulations on the fracking process, to a greater extent than the Republicans would have (although neither party is showing a significant degree of interest). Also, as I discussed earlier, Obama's policies concerning coal (and perhaps global warming in general) can only lead to higher demand for gas, which would act to increase prices.
It seems that the common wisdom today is that natural gas prices will remain low for a very long time. Others have a different view, although they seem to be in the minority, at present. To me, it seems clear that gas prices will increase significantly in the future, at least from today's historic lows, for several reasons:
First, the cost of natural gas is extremely sensitive to the balance between supply and demand. As the economy improves, and gas demand increases (especially if large numbers of old coal plants are retired), gas prices will increase, a lot. Second, gas costs several times what oil does, on an energy equivalent (per BTU) basis. Given that these two fuels are supposed to be largely interchangeable, this situation cannot last. (Right now several proposals for using natural gas for transportation are being explored.) Third, natural gas costs 3-4 times as much (as current U.S. prices) in Europe and 5-6 times as much in Japan. This is also a situation that won't last, and plans are being made right now to export U.S. gas to world markets. And finally, today's natural gas prices are far lower than what it actually costs to extract the gas (about half, actually), and producers are losing money hand over fist. This, again, is a situation that cannot last.
The election results largely preserve the status quo concerning policies that affect nuclear and energy in general. So, as to whether or not Romney and the Republicans would have been better or worse for nuclear, it's a mixed bag of offsetting effects. In any event, few new nuclear plant projects are expected over the short term due to the current low price of natural gas in the United States. Over the longer term, nuclear's future looks significantly brighter, especially if a serious global warming policy is (eventually) implemented.
Jim Hopf is a senior nuclear engineer with more than 20 years of experience in shielding and criticality analysis and design for spent fuel dry storage and transportation systems. He has been involved in nuclear advocacy for 10+ years, and is a member of the ANS Public Information Committee. He is a regular contributor to the ANS Nuclear Cafe.


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In John Whale's review of a recent book on the Evangelical conversion narrative in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, he notes how both preachers and their listeners, particularly women, found preaching addictive:
"Nothing would satisfy me", wrote Matthias Joyce, "but hearing the people roar under the sermon, from a sense of their misery; and, on the other hand, shouting for joy. through a sense of pardoning love."
Of the women in these congregations, many had led drab lives. A Cambuslang weaver's daughter, Elizabeth Johnson, was stirred when she saw "how much good others were getting, while I was let alone". A number of such women had found little joy in marriage: their experience of it was of over-frequent pregnancy, ill-treatment, desertion. Some of them seemed to look to Jesus for an alternative that went beyond metaphor. Martha Barham described herself as "one spirit, flesh and bone" with him, and as having given herself "entirely to him, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, till death shall convey me into his dear arms and bosom". Others directed these yearnings at their ministers, and let them know it. "Margaret Austin tells me", Charles Wesley recorded in his diary, "she has longed for my coming as a child for the breast." James Hutton (who as a member of the Moravian tendency, an Eastern European import, would have preferred quieter ways than prevailed among Methodists) wrote in 1740 that the Wesley brothers, "both of them, are dangerous snares to many young women; several are in love with them". [32]
Objections to emotional religion such as Hutton's have a long history in English literature, most notably in Jonathan Swift's brilliantly scurrilous satire in The Tale of a Tub. There the Anglican clergyman matched his Protestant attacks on the excesses of Roman Catholicism in Section IV with even more savage ones on Puritan or Low Church appeals to the emotions by conflating the etymologies of spirit, inspiration, and divine afflatus with notions of pride and sexuality. In The Tale of a Tub all such religious inspiration turns out to be a matter of gas and irritated or swollen body parts, so that allegedly religious experiences, sexuality, and farting turn out to be the results of pride (or being swollen or puffed up).
Dickens and other Victorian authors also satirized what they took to be the excesses of Evangelical religion, though, as might be expected, they do not emphasize any connection between it and sexual pleasures. Instead, as Sam Weller's father complains in Pickwick, Evangelical preachers like Stiggins are little more than swindlers who "reg'larly turns the heads of all the young ladies, about here. Lord bless their little hearts, they thinks its all right, and don't know no better; but they're the wictims o' gammon, Samivel, they're the wictims o' gammon (Ch. 27). Elsewhere in the novel, we see Stiggins consuming excessive amounts of a household's food and drink and leading Mrs. Weller to neglect household duties and to abandon local charity in favor of essentially useless foreign missionary efforts. As the older Weller puts it,
"Nothin' else," said Mr. Weller, shaking his head gravely; "and wot aggrawates me, Samivel, is to see 'em a wastin' all their time and labour in making clothes for copper-coloured people as don't want 'em, and taking no notice of the flesh-coloured Christians as do. If I'd my vay, Samivel, I'd just stick some o' these here lazy shepherds behind a heavy wheelbarrow, and run 'em up and down a fourteen-inch-wide plank all day. That 'ud shake the nonsense out of 'em, if anythin' vould." [ch. 27, p.359]
As Lauren Goodlad points out in Victorian Literature and the Victorian State, "Dickens's anti-feminist assault on middle-class women's extradomestic activities" (108), which appear in his satiric presentations of Mrs. Jellyby and Mrs. Pardiggle [in Bleak House], derives from his fears that by going outside the home, these women will simultaneously destroy the last refuge of the personal and "take on the cast of administrative machinery" (110). For Dickens and many other authors, Evangelical do-gooders threatened to destroy the home. Dickens, whose father's stay in debtor's prison led to one of the most traumatic events in the novelist's life, depicts many more incompetent, irresponsible fathers than mothers, but the dreadful mothers in his novels, like Mrs. Clenham in Little Dorrit, are usually explicitly Evangelical.
Victorian fiction is also full of hypocritical Evangelicals, such as the Rev. Brocklehurst in Jane Eyre, but Evangelical men and women alike were charged with being guilty of this vice. Not surprisingly, charges of hypocrisy, like attacks women's irresponsibility, derive from key features, perhaps virtues, of Evangelicalism. Whereas foolish emotionalism is the other side of the emotional, imaginative Evangelical religion that enriched so many Victorian lives, hypocrisy was the other side and inevitable consequence of two related Evangelical emphases — namely that the truly converted believer must demonstrate zeal, particularly in her actions on behalf of others, and that believers should make immoral behavior unfashionable. Class divisions occasionally made such attempts to raise the tone of the public sphere appear particularly hypocritical. Evangelical attempts to close pubs and other forms of popular entertainment, which Punch mocked, rang particularly hollow because members of the wealthier classes had access to private clubs and luxurious homes to which such rules would not apply.
Related Materials
- Evangelical Doctrine
- The Evangelical Movement in the Church of England
- A Clever Wife and Nice Home — a satirical view in an 1864 cartoon
- The Olney Hymns
Dickens, Charles. The Pickwick Papers. New York, London: Penguin Books, 1999.
Goodlad, Lauren M. E. Victorian Literature and the Victorian State: Character and Governance in a Liberal Society. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2003.
Hindmarsh, D. Bruce. The Evangelical Conversion Narrative: Spiritual Autobiography in Early Modern England. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
Whale, John. "Scab on the Story," Times Literary Supplement (17 February 2006): 32.
Last modified 19 February 2016


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The map covers most of the world from the Americas to Japan, and Greenland to Australia. It adds 3 new religions and 13 new playable factions. You need : - Medieval 2 Total War installed without modification on the data folder - Kingdoms installed with update 1.05 New Factions : - Empire of Mali - Kingdom of the Great Zimbabwe - Apache - Maya Empire - Inca Empire - Western Chalukya Empire - Chola Empire - Khmer Empire - Srivijaya Empire - Kingdom of Ryukyu - Empire of Japan - Empire of Song China - Jurchens Campaign Map : - The map covers 6 continents - 195 Provinces to conquer, names written in native languages - Cities as much historical as possible and based from medieval demographic studies - Stone forts and watch towers - New buildings - Simulation of the Great Wall of China with impassable mountains and fixed stoneforts Battle Map : - Tipi village for north american, red brick castles and stone forts and new textures for Mesoamerican cities. - Oil to protect walls entrance.
File information
File name: falcomtotalwar3_1.4.exe
File size: 917.31 MB
Mime type: application/x-dosexec; charset=binary


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In 1907 the Canadian Government learned that the Pablo herd was for sale and with commendable foresight purchased it, realizing the importance of acquiring so valuable a herd of what had formerly been the most abundant of our large native mammals. For its reception and maintenance a special national park was established at Wainwright in Alberta. This reservation covers an area of about 160 square miles, the whole of which is enclosed in a special wire fence about 76 miles in length. Judging by the abundance of old bison wallows it evidently formed a favorite place for bison in years gone by. Several lakes the largest of which is Jamieson Lake, about seven miles long, provide an ample water supply. The difficulties involved in the capture of the Pablo herd of bison and the transportation of the animals to the Buffalo Park at Wainwright, Alberta, can better be imagined than described. From the date of the receipt of the last animals in 1909 they have increased steadily each year until in 1918 they numbered 3711 head, or more than three times the total number of bison known to be living in North America in 1889.
The United States Government also took steps to protect and increase the herds of bison remaining. A national bison range was established in Montana; and in the Yellowstone National Park and other national reservations the bison were carefully protected, with successful results.
There are now eight herds protected by the United States Government comprising altogether 891 animals, The largest number is contained in the Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, where there were on January 1, 1919, 457 animals. In the Montana National Bison Range there were 242 animals on the same date, and the third largest herd is to be found in the Wichita National Forest and Game Reserve in Oklahoma where there are about 100 bison.
In Canada the Canadian Government has bison in three of the national parks. In 1918 the numbers of bison in these reservations were as follows: in Buffalo National Park, Wainright, Alberta, 3520 animals; in Elk Island Park, Alberta, 183; and in the Rocky Mountains Park, Banff, Alberta, 8; making a total of 3711 head. In addition it is estimated that there are about 500 wild bison, or wood bison, in the Athabaska region where they are now protected. Scattered throughout the Dominion in public and private parks there are approximately 40 additional bison. The total number of bison in Canada at the beginning of 1919, therefore, was about 4250 animals.
From the above estimates it will be seen that we have now approximately 7360 bison in the United States and Canada, as compared with 1091 in 1889. These figures show that the bison are coming back, and that they are doing so rapidly.
The rapid increase of the bison in our national reservations raises the question: "What shall we do with our surplus?" In the Buffalo Park at Wainwright, Alberta, this question is becoming a serious one as they will soon occupy as much range as is capable of sustaining them. The natural answer to this question is to create additional reservations, which policy undoubtedly will be followed, particularly in the United States where much additional range suitable for bison but less suitable for agricultural purposes is available. In addition provision is being made for the donation of surplus animals to municipalities, public organizations, and institutions. But cannot we go a step farther and consider the desirability of encouraging farmers to purchase surplus animals from the government and to maintain them? Anyone who has visited the bison in our national reservations will agree that if they were maintained in a semi-domesticated state they could be treated in the same manner as range cattle, provided they were enclosed. The cost of building suitable fencing might prove an obstacle in many cases, but it should not prove insuperable in view of the high price of beef. As a beef animal the value of the bison is well worth the careful consideration of our agricultural authorities. In addition it provides a robe of proven value in more northerly states and provinces. Not the least of the advantages of the bison over domestic cattle is their ability to "rustle" for themselves in winter and under climatic conditions which prove a hardship to our introduced cattle.
The proposal to utilize the bison in the manner suggested may appear impracticable, but how many of our ideas as to what was possible and what was impossible have, in the course of time, proved unfounded? The future alone will show. In the meantime all who are interested in the conservation of our wild life will be encouraged to further efforts by the story of the manner in which the bison was rescued from the fate which has befallen less magnificent members of the world's mammalian fauna.


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EMP Grenade
EMP Grenades are throwable Tactical Equipment unlocked at Level 11. They explode about a second after hitting the floor, and the effects last for ten seconds.
EMPs temporarily disables enemy electronics. Electronics include select Attachments, Tacticals, and all Scorestreaks. All items on the HUD will be removed, and the screen will be fuzzy.
Zombies Mode
The EMP Grenade can also be found in Zombies. More specifically, it's found in the Mystery Box on all Green Run related maps. The EMP renders the zombies in 'Sleep mode' exactly the same as the beginning of Green Run.
They will stay in this way if the player or players
- Don't shoot any guns.
- Don't explode any grenades.
- Don't run.
- Don't Touch them.
If a player fires gun, the zombies could 'wake-up' and resume attacking faster then a player can recover from the daze of the EMP Grenade.
Be very careful when using EMPs. They can temporarily disable a Perk or Perk-A-Cola Machine.


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Top 10 Open Government Websites
Federal agencies face White House orders to become more transparent. These websites expose new data sets, support public petitions, and reveal where taxpayer money goes.
January 25, 2012
Dozens of websites have been created under the White House's Open Government Directive, announced in December 2009, with the goals of increasing transparency and fostering greater public participation and collaboration in government processes and policy.
Some sites, such as Data.gov, are far-reaching. Data.gov (pictured above) is an online repository of government data that's available to the public in a variety of formats. As of the middle of January, more than 390,000 data sets from 172 agencies and sub-agencies were available there. Among the most popular are U.S. Geological Survey statistics on earthquakes and the U.S. Agency for International Development's data on economic aid and military assistance to foreign governments.
Data.gov, more than a big database, serves as a platform for communities of interest, where researchers, application developers, and others brainstorm about public data. One recent example is the National Ocean Council's Ocean portal, with information on offshore seabirds and critical habitats for endangered species, among other data sets. There are also discussion forums and interactive maps.
Some specialty sites focus on a particular area of government activity. The Environmental Protection Agency recently released a cache of data on greenhouse gas emissions, along with an interactive map and tools for analysis.
Other sites built around narrow data sets are AirNow (focused on air quality), the Department of Energy's Green Energy site, the National Archives and Records Administration's virtual community for educators, and the National Library of Medicine's Pillbox site, for identifying tablet and capsule medications.
The White House has established a Web page where the public can track the progress of open government. A dashboard shows how agencies are faring in 10 areas, such as releasing data and publishing their plans.
InformationWeek has selected 10 federal websites that are the best examples of open government in all of its forms. (State and metropolitan open government sites aren't included in this overview.) Some put an emphasis on data transparency, while others encourage public participation or collaboration. Even so, there's room for improvement. The data on these sites isn't always timely or accurate, and public participation sometimes wanes, underscoring that open government needs constant attention to be effective.
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